We survived our torture in good ol’ Red Bay, Alabama to the tune of about 18 days. The temps in and around August tend to be in the large number range and this time they did not disappoint. Plus, we got to enjoy some pretty intense humidity just to enhance the pleasure of our stay in Hades. We got the fixes done to Rosie that we needed, and then got the added enjoyment of doing some of our own fixes after the Tiffin gremlins went to work on us. I actually got to tear apart and repair our front toilet for a serious water leak, being the expert that I am in plumbing repair (LOL, very much in the NOT category!) It was a $hitty job, but I persevered…(insert lots of loud moans here).
Next up on the agenda was to head towards Indiana for a visit with my cousin Bev & her family. We happily put Red Bay in our rearview mirrors and made our way to a return stay for a couple of days at the Good Ole RV Resort in Goodlettsville, TN (Nashville area). There we got some big box shopping done (Costco) before we headed north. We barely had time to do much in town, but at least the RV park still puts on live music nightly, so we got to see some old-timers do some pickin’ & grinnin’…
A little pickin’ & a-grinnin’, at Grand Ole RV Resort
Bill Monroe’s Music Campground in beautiful downtown Bean Blossom, IN, was our choice for home for a couple of days to visit cousin Bev. This is a very large, rustic campground that puts on the Southern Indiana Blues Festival, the Bean Blossom Bluegrass Festival, and the Hippy Hill Fest 2022. The festivals tend to draw large crowds, we were lucky we were there at a non-festival time. The park office also houses what they call the Bill Monroe Bluegrass Hall of Fame Museum which is free to wander through and gawk at all the memorabilia. I will forewarn all you RVers wanting to check this park out…DO NOT RELY ON YOUR GPS DEVICES TO GET THERE!!! Rosie (the MH) has a trucker’s version GPS and it still led us on a tour of half-lane, overgrown with trees, heavily traveled back-roads along Lake Lemon. #%$&@^%#*!&&!!!! But we survived…
We took a little time to check out downtown Nashville, Indiana. It appeared to be a huge tourist attraction, geared more toward bikers, and it was certainly busy the day we were there. We walked the main drag checking out the shops, then stopped off to quench our thirst at Big Woods Pizza/Quaff On Brewery. Not much to write home about on the suds…On the way home we found a covered bridge, Indiana style. The poor ol’ thing had it’s share of graffiti…
Welcome to the Bean Blossom Bridge, circa 1880
Nice graffiti…NOT!
This guy was just going for a swim under the bridge. He looks suspiciously like a baby Copperhead…Let’s all go swimming!
Jeanne does a little “bridgin'”
We got to have a very nice visit with Cousin Bev, her daughter’s family Leila, Jay, and their little ones, and Bev’s son Luke. Regrettably, we missed out on Bev’s hubby Greg, he was away on a job. Leila put on a great brunch spread and we thoroughly enjoyed the eats and the family time, a big thank you to all.
Since we were in this part of the world, and with a small break in the action vis-a-vis the China-virus-hysteria, I had my sights set on a visit to one of my favorite breweries…Founder’s Brewery in Grand Rapids, MI. We headed northward and landed at Steamboat Park & Campground in Georgetown Township, MI along the Grand River. We used our time for some errands/chores but the highlight for me was checking out Founder’s Brewery. It’s a large one, as far as crafties go. We had a nice lunch there & sampled some of their wares that I had not sampled before.
Our home at Steamboat, looking out at the Grand River
A frontroom view out the windshield…
Not too jam-packed
One of the kid playgrounds and the pool area
The pool
Even the pool folks get a view of the river
The Grand Lady paddlewheel tour boat, docked at the office. Like always, click on pic to get full view…
Here’s a future dugout canoe heading downriver, just needs to be dug out…
Being caught up on the blog posting is a good feeling. Until next post…
We chose to pop on over to Atlanta so we could visit Jimmy Carter’s Presidential Library. We stayed at the Stone Mountain Park again for a quick 2 day stay. Since our last stop there, they have done quite a few improvements such as adding yurts and park model trailers for rent, erected a large, very nice playground area for the kids, and across the lake a huge Marriott’s hotel sprung up.
Our home at Stone Mountain Park Campground.Lakeside yurts for rent, a new addition.Up close on a yurt, with Stone Mountain in the background… Still a little “not hot enough” for pool time.Part view of the kids’ playground.
The Carter Presidential Library (it is actually called a “Center”, not a library) was OK. I was disappointed not more attention was devoted to the Iran Hostage Crisis. Even the Bush libraries had extensive displays regarding their wars, whether you consider them justified or not. I think the hostage crisis overshadowed the Panama Canal Treaty and even the Peace Treaty between Israel and Egypt. It should play a more prominent part in Carter’s Library. Just my two cents…
The entrance to the Carter Presidential “Center”. There was quite a display from Carter’s submarine days.Same old crap. Time does not seem to change behaviors.Carter’s replication of his oval office. Looks like he was sadly lacking “personal touches”, like family photos. Maybe he had some inkling of his future in politics… I just could not stop laughing…that is truly sad.Jimmy and Roz were able to write their memoirs on this state of the art word processor.
We had a little bit of spare time so we wanted to do the walk up Stone Mountain. The mountain does not look very daunting, but it is actually a good leg workout, continuous incline with numerous rocks/steps thrown in for good measure. But the view at the top was very nice.
That’s funny, it doesn’t LOOK too strenuous…We found lots of graffiti all the way up, some dating back to the 1800’s.We also found a “gum” pole on the path up. Similar concept to the world famous “gum wall” in San Luis Obispo, CA.A herd of these ladies (OK, 4 or 5 of them) were also doing the hike up Stone Mountain.A pause for a rest and a view… Now we know it was not that strenuous if Jeanne can do yoga routines at the top!
So with another Presidential Library notch in our belts, onward and upward. Weather looked to be getting a bit more mellow, so we decided to start our northward trek. Chattanooga, Tennessee was our next chosen stop. We found a Camping World campground on the south side of town which was actually an OK stop; full hookups, level site, $17 per night, and close to town. We used this opportunity to do a Costco run and load up.
A short trip into downtown found us at the Walnut Street Bridge which is a foot bridge across the Tennessee River. We walked around the area a bit and found a sidewalk that was anything but straight. Not much had changed in the area since we were here last. We have been in the area before and already checked out Rock City and Point Park on Lookout Mountain (Civil War site). This time we were going to visit Ruby Falls, an underground waterfall, but seeing it was a short excursion, we opted instead for a 9.6 mile hike on the Mullen’s Cove Loop Trail in the Prentice Cooper State Forest. That was one killer hike! My hams and quads are still singing…
Walking around downtown at the Walnut Street Bridge which crosses the Tennessee River, we found this sidewalk section. It should give Lombard St. in San Francisco a run for its money… The Walnut Street Bridge. Baseball art near the bridge.At the beginning of the 9.6 mile hike. Think skinny and breathe deep!An unoccupied view of the same stairway.There I was. Braving the wild. Had to cross the raging river with only a rotten log to tread on. Risking life and limb. But rest easy, my friends, I ultimately survived! Gee, another rest. Looking down on the Tennessee River from Snooper’s Rock.Little Miss “9.6 miles is not long enough” just needed a little more physical work, so “yoga on the rocks” it is.
From Tennessee it was up into Kentucky for our next adventure, at the Mammoth Cave National Park. We stayed 4 days at the park campground, right next to the visitor’s center. The park offers several different cave tours and we started out with the Historic Entrance self tour. This was a short walk/tour and pretty uneventful as far as caves go, especially if you’ve ever been anywhere like the Oregon Caves or Carlsbad Caverns. We also took the short hike down the River Styx Spring Trail to see the spring.
Our home at Mammoth Cave Nat’l Park campground. The Historic Entrance to Mammoth Cave.Imagine if you turned all lights out inside the cave. This is what it looks like! (Sorry, no flash allowed…)River Styx Spring.
While at the campground, we found the Mammoth Cave Railroad Bike & Hike Trail. The bikes got a little work in (NO! My hams and quads got all the work! Ouch!) on the 16 mile ride which included a couple of healthy (read: steep) inclines.
Some of the 16 mile trail was gravel/dirt… Some of the 16 mile trail was plank wood…And at least one of us just had to stop and rest. Numerous times.Can’t escape without taking a selfie on the bike path.Got to see some critters on the trek. Say hello to Mr. Turtle.I didn’t think the snakes were out this early in the season. But this is some type of water snake because he shot right into the water and swam away at warp factor 8.Mr. Frog said, “Don’t bother me son, I’m busy!”They also had several graveyard/cemeteries scattered along the trail. Family plots going back into the 1800’s.
After all that physical exertion, I was ready for some sedentary living and beginning the Kentucky Bourbon Trail was just the ticket. From our base at Mammoth Cave, we were able to start both trails. There is the Kentucky Bourbon Trail that consists of 10 distilleries (the ones I call “corporate”, large conglomerates like Jim Beam and Maker’s Mark), and the Kentucky Bourbon Trail Craft Tour that consists of 13 small distilleries (the mom-and-pop family outfits). All 23 are scattered pretty much around the Bowling Green-Louisville-Lexington triangle. Our start got us visiting 5 of the 23 from our home at Mammoth Cave.
The store front for Corsair Distillery. One of the craft distillers.One of the big boys.Woodford has a Double Barrel bourbon that when finished in it’s original barrel, it goes directly into a brand new barrel for a double dose of aging. The visitor’s center for Four Roses.Then there’s good ol’ Jim Beam…So far, my personal favorite is from MB Roland, another of the craft distillers. They actually have 2 products I like. Their Dark Fired Kentucky Straight Bourbon Whiskey has a heavy smoke flavor to it. They achieve that by using smoked corn in their mash process. Their other product is a moonshine they call St. Elmo’s Fire. It is a cinnamon style whiskey with cayenne pepper. Now that will light y’ur cigar for ye!
We concluded our stay with one more cave tour, the Domes and Dripstones Tour. The name of the tour is more spectacular than the sights along this tour. There are a few cave features at the end of the 2 hour tour, but, if you have seen anything like Carlsbad Caverns, you will be disappointed here.
One of the rare times there was enough light to allow a photo, here of a ceiling of the cave.This is a mini-waterfall near the Frozen Niagara formation, at the end of the Domes and Dripstones tour.Oh, and once again, if you turn out all the lights inside the cave, this is what you see!
Time to move along, we relocated to Bardstown with a 4 day stay at the White Acre Campground. We started here with a little walkabout town, steeped in Civil War lore and architecture.
The Bardstown Baptist Church, constituted in 1815.A shot down one of the main drags. The building at the end is now used as the visitor’s center and there is a traffic roundy-round (AKA: traffic circle) that circles that building. Now used as the visitor’s center.Lots of history here.This was an early post office printers and cabinet shop, circa 1814. It is called the McLean House. Just a sample of the many historic buildings…
From this stop we were able to snag another round of Kentucky Bourbon Trail stops. Trying to hit up all 23 distilleries is certainly giving us some exposure to back roads and some beautiful scenery. Some of the horse farms we passed were spectacular, especially when your looking at a huge mansion, then realize it is just the horse barn! We should live as well as some of these horses…
It’s terrible that they actually make these poor horsies live in shacks like these…Makers Mark. Gotta get my pitcher[sic] with their sign…Limestone Branch DistilleryWilderness Trail Distillery.Kentucky Peerless Distillery. Some of the craft distillers, like this one, are new to bourbon and don’t have any properly aged product yet, so my tasting was limited to their moonshine products.Willett Distillery. Heaven Hill is one of the big boys. They also own/produce Evan Williams. Angel’s Envy Distillery, across the street from the Louisville Slugger Field.
After 4 days and a couple of very large thunder/lightening spectacles, we motored a bit north to the Louisville area. We found the Add-More Campground actually in Clarksville, Indiana for a short 2 day stop to finish up this area’s Bourbon Trail participants. Besides the distilleries here, Jeanne found an area of downtown called 4th Street Live! which we took a stroll through. It was daytime as we did, but it looked more to be a happening place for the nightlife. The area is similar to Fremont St. in Vegas, sans the freakazoids, with stage area for bands and all the food and liquor you could imagine.
Kentucky Artisan Distillery another of the craft folks.Some of the grounds to Bulleit Frontier Whiskey Experience.Inside the visitor’s center at Evan Williams Bourbon Experience.Fourth Street Live! Only, more of a nighttime thing…Where there is a Hard Rock Cafe, there is good times being had by all!Had to take this shot. Guy Fieri was a fellow Sonoma County/Santa Rosa (CA) boy who made it kinda big. Found his restaurant here in Louisville. When the Colonel offers chicken, you just cannot refuse! Home of the Louisville Slugger. It’s almost opening day! Jeanne and Woody stepping up to the bat…
There was also a foot bridge called the “Big Four Bridge” that crossed the Ohio River and gave good views of downtown. That bridge was a railroad bridge built in the 1880’s-1890’s and in 1929 they built a new bridge inside the old frame. 42 workers died while building the bridge, so now it is considered a monument to those who died.
As we begin our journey across the Big Four Bridge. A look along the Ohio River from the bridge.New bridge on old bridge…Looking across the highway to downtown. Ahhhh, the green grass of Kentucky.The bridge from below.There was a nice tribute to Abe on the Kentucky side of the bridge. Jeanne getting cozy with ol’ Abe.
Well, it’s moving time again. Headed east now, gotta finish the Bourbon Trails with the Lexington area stops. Lookout, Lexington, here we come!
We did a two day stopover at a Yogi Bear Jellystone campground in Scottsburg, IN. This was strictly a stay-put stopover, not a whole lotta anything nearby to see. Then it was on to Red Bay and the Allegro Campground at the Tiffin service center. They don’t do reservations so it was a get there and hurry up and wait in line for your service date. They have 90-some full hook up sites at the old airport location and they are generally packed full. Once you register you get on the wait list for service and at this time they are generally clearing 1-3 units per day from the service bays (they got about 49 total bays here, plus who knows how many over at the paint service center in Belmont). So wait, we did.
“Hey, Yogi, watch your hands, mister!”Tiffin Service Center bays from the outside……and bays from the inside.Hurry up and wait!As the sun sets on our lovely stay here in Red Bay…
The temps in this part of Alabama at the end of July were not bad, a little humid, and a few thunder/lightning/rain storms. We made a run to Tishomingo State Park in Mississippi where we walked the dogs on one of the trails off the swinging bridge. We also just HAD to check out the Coon Dog Cemetary, the only one of its kind in the world. Oh boy…It was started sometime in the 1930’s and there’s quite a few puppies resting there. Locals said we just had to visit the Rattlesnake Saloon too. It is a local saloon/eatery built under/inside a cavern carved into the rock. The lunchtime eats were typical barfood, burgers/sandwiches and nothing to rave about.
The Rattlesnake SaloonUp close and personalWorld famous Coon Dog CemeteryRest easy, puppiesThe swinging bridge at Tishomingo State Park, over Bear Creek Rock outcropping off the trail at the swinging bridge
One big draw back to this part of the world, there seems to be a lot of “dry” counties. A couple of warm days it would have been nice to quaff a cold one, only to find out there was none to be had. We did manage to find a pizza joint in Belmont where it was not a “dry” county, even though the local grocers and stores choose not to carry alcohol. So it was off to non-Chicago pizza and a pitcher of beer. Pizza was terrible, and the only beer on tap and available was Bud Light. Yuuuuuuuuuuuuck!
The Natchez Trace also runs through this area, so we took a brief drive up a small section of the over 400 mile trail. We saw the Pharr Indian Mounds, an ancient burial grounds for the local Indians and a small “graveyard” of unknown Confederate soldiers. This would be an awesome bicycle trip, to take the entire Natchez Trace from Mississippi to Tennessee. Maybe some day…
Pharr Mounds on the Natchez TraceUnknown Confederates’ resting places “Tomb” of an unknown soldier
While in Red Bay we ventured over to Tupelo, Mississippi to gawk at the birth home of Elvis Presley. And we tripped into Muscle Shoals for the Alabama Music Hall of Fame. There, we met Bobby Denton. Being a die-hard heavy metalist, I have to admit I am not familiar with Mr. Denton’s music. He was also a state senator for Mississippi. Nearby we found Helen Keller’s birth home.
Elvis was born here.Bobby Denton, at the Alabama Music Hall of Fame.Helen Keller’s birthplace
Well, we got finished with the Tiffin Service Center after a total of 24 night’s stay. It’s nice that for owners in that first warranty year they do not charge for the campout on those old runways. All others get there spots for $20 per night. I could not drive fast enough in my escape from Red Bay.
We wanted to drive to Montgomery for our next stopover, but we felt like driving a bit farther once we got there, so we kept heading south to Troy, AL. We thought we would just swing into their local Walmart for an overnighter, but of course we found the only one in town and it did not allow RV overnighters. Southbound to Ozark, AL, where we found their Walmart and again found they also did not allow RV overnighters. So, one more time, we continued south to Dothan, AL and BINGO(!) we found a Walmart that welcomed RV overnighters. One grocery excursion and a good night’s sleep and we were on the road again, destination Jacksonville, FL.
Jacksonville is a HUGELY spread out town! We stayed at the Kathryn Abbey Hanna Park for 3 nights. The park is a total jungle setting, thick trees, shrubs, narrow winding roads in the campground, and lots of banana spiders. One needs to recon the sites before driving a big rig in, not a lot of level looking sites. We found a fairly level spot under the thick canopy and called it home for a few days. The park has about a mile and a half of beach with white sands and at this time not a lot of rough surf. We walked the beach, swam some in the ocean, and hunted sea shells, typical beach comber stuff. It was very hot during the early parts of days, with cloud cover rolling in generally at the back half and we got some quick torrential thunder/lightning shows while we were there. The town of Jacksonville is a little too sprawling for my taste…we had to drive in to a Costco and a Staples and it was always a 20-25 mile drive to get anywhere. Even getting to the general delivery post office to get our monthly mail, we ended up driving forever. And the kicker was we still only saw the northern part of the city.
Sunset over the lake at Kathryn Abbey Hanna Park.Oh boy, my favorite, airborne banana spiders!Sunset over the beach at Hanna Park. Wait, is that a Black Hawk I see over the clouds?Southward look along the Hanna Park beach.
3 days and go, we were off northbound, only about 2 weeks to kill until we run into “The Attack of the Grandchild” (Jenn and Max arrive in Charleston). Next stopover was another 3 days (Passport America) at Golden Isles RV Park in Brunswick, GA. It looked like an old KOA park, with the telltale A-frame office, but the park was not too bad. Grassy sites, a pool, and a restaurant on site that was always PACKED for lunch with locals. Not a lot to do around Brunswick, but we did manage to make a quick spin through town, checked out Jekyll Island and St. Simons Island. But the heat was pretty intense here, hard to get away from the A/C for any length of time.
So, onward and northward we go, I’ll try to get more pix for the post…
So we get to the Grand Tetons National Park area and of course we brought crappy weather with us, for mid June anyways. We actually got snowed on during our stay here! Our first views of the mountains were obscured by the heavy clouds and overcast. But it did eventually clear up so that we could see the mountains better. Jeanne got her wild critter fix, we had a Grizzly walk directly in front of the Jeep on the main road at Jackson Lake Junction. At Mormon Row, we saw a family of baby foxes living or exploring in one of the buildings. A moose also paid regular visits to us at the campground we stayed at, Gros Ventre Campground (pronounced “Grow Von” we found out after we had been shredding it to pieces). The campground also had colonies of what the local campground host called Whistle Pigs. They were like smaller versions of prairie dogs and they whistled to each other similar to prairie dogs. These drove our Chihuahua/Terrier mix crazy.. This particular campground has 350 individual sites, a few with electric, most just a site with table and fire ring. They do have a dump station and fresh water to fill your tank with. We boondocked here for 7 days with no issues, running the generator a couple hours in the AM and another couple hours in the PM. Sure is nice with an onboard 10K generator… It helped to have the yearly access pass (1/2 off) for the National Parks, it cost us all of about $11 a night to stay here. The electric sites were a bit high at I think it was $36.50 a night. The Grand Tetons was not as much driving as we had in Yellowstone, but there was some. Some of the old settlement buildings at Mormon Row were cool to see with the Tetons as a backdrop. We are not much for early early rising, the weather was not very cooperative, so we never made it to the Signal Hill overlook for a sunrise, they are supposed to be quite awesome. But we did make it to the Snake River Overlook for a sunset. A bit cloudy, but still scenic. One of our neighbors from our Yellowstone stay suggested we hit the Bar J Cowboy Cookout in Jackson, so we did. They cook up an authentic cowboy-out-on-the-range meal, then do a musical entertainment show. Very nice.
Our initial view of the Grand Tetons, great weather and all…Quite an improvement on the view, toward the end of our stay anyways.A shot across the lake.Nighttime falls on the Grand Tetons, as seen across the Snake River.A different angle on the Tetonic sunset.Some of the old buildings on Mormon Row.Oops, I think we intruded on someone who needed to use the facilities, “any port in the storm”, you know?Nighttime from Mormon Row. Bullwinkle strolled through the campground.Me thinks this is a baby what they call Whistle Pig.And Yogi, the Grizzly bear, would make a great traffic cop, he can stop traffic on a dime!
Next stop was Lander Wyoming and the Lander Mountain View Campground and Cafe. Wow, talk about Sticksville! A very nice older couple, the Maleks, operate this place, it used to be a KOA way back when, the building burnt down and was re-built, but the whole tiny campground area is in need of a little help. And the cafe is the owner, I think her name was Lu Ann Malek basically cooking out of her kitchen in the main building which is also the slash office slash dining area slash living quarters, you get the picture. Hubby, Joe Malek, is currently running for his State Senate District seat. Good Luck, Joe. After a couple of days here it was on to Fort Casper Campground, Casper, Wyoming.
Here it is, the world famous Mountain View Campground and Cafe. This is the cafe…Our home, at Mountain View Campground in Lander. Luxurious, ain’t it?!
We stayed with the same crappy weather theme in Casper. The winds kicked up something awful, we actually pulled our slides in one night, I thought the wind was going to rip off our slide toppers. And the rain dumped BUCKETS on us. It rained so hard the sirens went off in the night, warning of impending flash flooding. Oh boy, what excitement! Well, we did not float away… We found a veterinarian who could squeeze us in at the last minute, Woody was due for shots, so we got that taken care of. When we got ready to pull up stakes, our steps to the bus went goofy on us and I could not get them to operate properly. I ended up getting them in the travel position, then disconnected the power to them and added them to my growing “laundry list” of fixes needed at Tiffin for when we get there. Luckily still, none of them are Earth shattering imperative to get done. Yet.
Into South Dakota, our “home” state. We opted to stay at the Elk Mountain Campground in the Wind Cave National Park outside of Hot Springs, SD. The campground is bare bones, community water spigots but otherwise dry camping sites, with nearby restrooms, no showers. With the Access Pass for the Nat’l Parks, it was all of $9 per night for staying here. The sites were nice, level and the grasses were kept mowed and neat. We checked out the Mammoth Site in Hot Springs, an active archaeological dig for Mammoth fossils, very cool. A trip up the Needles Hwy found some interesting rock formations, particularly one appropriately named “Eye of the Needle”. We made the loop around Mt. Rushmore and found that the 3 big, low clearance tunnels blasted through the rocks were actually engineered to be done in that manner so that when you approach/look through the tunnel, you can see the President’s faces framed at the end. Wow.
The “Eye of the Needle”Mammoth Site is an actual on-going archaeological dig.“Oh look, another Tatanka!”Suck in your gut while driving through this tunnel, think “skinny”!Mammoth parts and pieces.
Off to Snake Creek State Recreation Area near Platte, SD. This was a very nice state park area on the Missouri River, an area called Lake Francis Case. Like most SD state parks, Snake Creek had electric only sites. The grounds were kept neat, lots of green grass, trees, and shrubs. They also had a nice groomed beach area. We only stayed a couple of nights here, but in the short time there, our neighbors thought they had celebrities in their midst, I guess they never saw a Phaeton motorhome before. Jeanne is still giggling about that one, she wanted to give out autographs…
A shot across Lake Francis Case from the campground The Princess gets thirsty on a walkHome at Snake Creek Campground. Autographs available upon request…
Moving on, we parked at Hills RV Park in Plankinton, SD for the next couple of nights. It was a small place but with full hookups for doing laundry and with a Passport America discount. Check in was self-service, the owners lived in a house on site but never made contact with us. Jeanne heard there was a tornado that ripped thru this area a few weeks ago, in Wessington Springs, so we had to do a road trip there. The damage was not extensive, but some of the local folk I’m sure would beg to differ. A few buildings, a few cars, a few signs, but I don’t think there were any fatalities.
Big Sioux State Recreation Area was next on our dance card. This was a state park in Brandon, just outside of Sioux Falls along the Big Sioux river. This was electric only and the whole area felt like a mosquito breeding ground. We were PRISONERS! in the bus, afraid to go outside and ring the dinner bell for the mosquito smorgasbord to begin! It’s a shame, and HAS to be a hilarious sight, to see grown humans taking the dogs out for a walk, wearing long sleeved hoodies in 95 degree heat! But we did. We got a chance to actually pick up our mail in person at this stop, since Alternative Resources is here in Sioux Falls. Mosquitos were not bad in town, so we got a chance to take the Princess (Madison) to the groomers at PetSmart, took Woody for a walk around the actual Sioux Falls, and stopped by Billion Jeep Dealership where they were able to get me in for an appointment in a couple of days, bless their souls. The Jeep has been making a high pitched cricket type noise as we drive on down the road and it is similar to listening to fingernails on the chalkboard, been driving me NUTS! We had to escape the mosquitos, so we left for the Tower Campground in town for the one night to get us to the Jeep appointment. Tower is a fair sized park, we stayed here 2 years ago while establishing our residency here, but it is in the flight path of military jets that come and go at all hours. Jeep got our problem solved (quick adjustment to the passenger side manifold flap or something-or-other) and off we went.
Sioux Falls, SDSioux Falls, scene 2
We made our first foray into the state of Minnesota, “land of a thousand lakes”, and, as we quickly found out, “land of a bazillion mosquitos because of a land of a thousand lakes”!!!!!! We stopped at a podunk campground, Shady Acres Campground (Passport America), in Garden City, MN. This campground is the actual county fairgrounds (very small county) and the sites are all on the lawn area. I HATE MOSQUITOS! Give me rattlesnakes, copperheads, spiders, bears, wolves, mountain lions, ANYTHING but mosquitos! I look like a connect the dots puzzle…We snuck into Mankato last night for dinner and ate at Mazatlan Mexican Restaurant-very good food if you are ever in the area. Awesome Margaritas…Because of the mosquitos we won’t be able to get out of here fast enough tomorrow, but flee we shall as we continue eastbound toward Green Bay, Wisconsin.
We made our way to Apple Creek Campground in De Pere outside of Green Bay. There is a big shortage of RV campgrounds around Green Bay, so we settled here. Very quickly I thought we landed in the middle of a Jerry Springer show. Enough said, you get the picture. We took the tour of Lambeau Field, a very interesting and informative venture, learned a lot about the only publicly owned team in the NFL. Unfortunately they were just finishing up on a massive renovation to their Pro Shop and we missed the Grand Opening by a day. All in all, Mr. Rodgers’ neighborhood is very nice, lots of brick and brings thoughts of Pac Bell Park to mind.
Field level from the GB players’ tunnel.In line for opening day, no crowds, only a couple months early… Mr. Green Bay Packers, Curly Lambeau.Vince Lombardi standing guard over the stadium.
We also checked out a couple of the local cheese factories and got our fill of curds. You just can’t be in Wisconsin without sampling the cheese! One of the cheese factories was near Algoma, so we trekked over to see Lake Michigan. It is kinda weird to look out on the horizon and see nothing but water but to realize you are only looking at a lake, not an ocean.
Lake Michigan
After a couple of days it was off to the Chicago area of Illinois. We stayed at a very nice county park, the Paul Wolff Campground in Burnidge Forest Preserve in Kane County, near Elgin. From here we tripped into Chi-Town, against the warnings from the campground host not to drive anywhere near the city because of the so-called congestion. We braved it in the Jeep, drove to Wrigley Field then to the Magnificent Mile and on to Navy Pier. Yes it was congested a wee bit, but it was no different than driving in downtown San Francisco. The problem in Chicago is trying to find anywhere to park, the camp host said most parking garages were going to run about $40 to park. But we did find curbside metered parking near Wrigley. Magnificent Mile was pretty awe inspiring and JAM PACKED with pedestrian traffic. While in Elgin, we were aimed at Giordano’s Pizza by the camp host. I don’t think I will be able to look at a Round Table pizza ever again! Giordano’s serves a stuffed pizza pie that is out of this world.
Me and Ernie hangin’ at Wrigley.Tribute to Harry Caray.Ron Santo out on the Sheffield side of the stadium, Sheffield seats on top of the residences in the backdrop.
In the limited amount of total time spent driving through the state of Illinois, I have now crowned Illinois drivers, truckers in particular, as the absolute worst drivers of all the states we have been in. Cell phones stuck in faces and ears, tailgating is their way of life. At 60 MPH on freeways a couple of times I had truckers race up from behind me to within 3’ of my bumper and stay there, with opportunity but no attempt to pass me. Where are the cops when you need ‘em? The toll road system in and around Chicago is a serious pain in the buttocks too.
Shipshewana, Indiana is where we are now for a few days. Amish/Mennonite country. Wow, they are everywhere, carts and bicycles. We went and ate at one of the Amish restaurants, the Blue Gate Restaurant and Bakery. Food was OK, a bit salty, but they serve a lot of food. We walked the main drag, checking out the shops which included many furniture stores with good quality Amish furniture. It’s a whole other world here.
Jeanne overseeing an Amish traffic jam at the local bank…
Time to move on, still headed toward Red Bay Alabama. Not quite sure where our next stop will be…